The Chicago Manual of Style is the official guide of Chicago citation formatting. You can find the manual at the reference desk and in the reference section of the library's collection.
The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition by
Technologies may change, but the need for clear and accurate communication never goes out of style. That is why for more than one hundred years The Chicago Manual of Style has remained the definitive guide for anyone who works with words. In the seven years since the previous edition debuted, we have seen an extraordinary evolution in the way we create and share knowledge. This seventeenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style has been prepared with an eye toward how we find, create, and cite information that readers are as likely to access from their pockets as from a bookshelf. It offers updated guidelines on electronic workflows and publication formats, tools for PDF annotation and citation management, web accessibility standards, and effective use of metadata, abstracts, and keywords. It recognizes the needs of those who are self-publishing or following open access or Creative Commons publishing models. The citation chapters reflect the ever-expanding universe of electronic sources--including social media posts and comments, private messages, and app content--and also offer updated guidelines on such issues as DOIs, time stamps, and e-book locators. Other improvements are independent of technological change. The chapter on grammar and usage includes an expanded glossary of problematic words and phrases and a new section on syntax as well as updated guidance on gender-neutral pronouns and bias-free language. Key sections on punctuation and basic citation style have been reorganized and clarified. To facilitate navigation, headings and paragraph titles have been revised and clarified throughout. And the bibliography has been updated and expanded to include the latest and best resources available. This edition continues to reflect expert insights gathered from Chicago's own staff and from an advisory board of publishing experts from across the profession. It also includes suggestions inspired by emails, calls, and even tweets from readers. No matter how much the means of communication change, The Chicago Manual of Style remains the ultimate resource for those who care about getting the details right.
A Pocket Guide to Writing in History by
Get up-to-date advice in a concise guide as Pocket Guide to Writing History helps you develop the writing and research skills essential to success in an undergraduate history course.
A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by
Dewey. Bellow. Strauss. Friedman. The University of Chicago has been the home of some of the most important thinkers of the modern age. But perhaps no name has been spoken with more respect than Turabian. The dissertation secretary at Chicago for decades, Kate Turabian literally wrote the book on the successful completion and submission of the student paper. Her Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, created from her years of experience with research projects across all fields, has sold more than seven million copies since it was first published in 1937. Now, with this seventh edition, Turabian’s Manual has undergone its most extensive revision, ensuring that it will remain the most valuable handbook for writers at every level—from first-year undergraduates, to dissertation writers apprehensively submitting final manuscripts, to senior scholars who may be old hands at research and writing but less familiar with new media citation styles. Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, and the late Wayne C. Booth—the gifted team behind The Craft of Research—and the University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff combined their wide-ranging expertise to remake this classic resource. They preserve Turabian’s clear and practical advice while fully embracing the new modes of research, writing, and source citation brought about by the age of the Internet. Booth, Colomb, and Williams significantly expand the scope of previous editions by creating a guide, generous in length and tone, to the art of research and writing. Growing out of the authors’ best-selling Craft of Research, this new section provides students with an overview of every step of the research and writing process, from formulating the right questions to reading critically to building arguments and revising drafts. This leads naturally to the second part of the Manual for Writers, which offers an authoritative overview of citation practices in scholarly writing, as well as detailed information on the two main citation styles (“notes-bibliography” and “author-date”). This section has been fully revised to reflect the recommendations of the fifteenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style and to present an expanded array of source types and updated examples, including guidance on citing electronic sources. The final section of the book treats issues of style—the details that go into making a strong paper. Here writers will find advice on a wide range of topics, including punctuation, table formatting, and use of quotations. The appendix draws together everything writers need to know about formatting research papers, theses, and dissertations and preparing them for submission. This material has been thoroughly vetted by dissertation officials at colleges and universities across the country. This seventh edition of Turabian’s Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations is a classic reference revised for a new age. It is tailored to a new generation of writers using tools its original author could not have imagined—while retaining the clarity and authority that generations of scholars have come to associate with the name Turabian.
Not sure where to start?
The Purdue's Owl is a helpful online resource for Chicago citation.
When you use outside sources, you will need to create a Bibliography that tells your reader all the information they need to go find the source themselves if they want to. Commonly used sources include:
BOOKS (NOTE: do not use bolded font)
Cornish, Dudley Taylor. The Sable Arm: Black Troops in the Union Army, 1861-1865. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1987.
JOURNAL ARTICLES (online) (NOTE: indent second line to .5" & do not use bolded font)
Castel, Albert. “The Fort Pillow Massacre: A Fresh Examination of the Evidence.” Civil War History 4, no. 1 (1958): 37. http://doi.org/ 50.10.1353/cwh:1958.0059
WEBSITES
Satalkar, Bhakti. “Water Aerobics.” Buzzle.com. July 15, 2010. www.buzzle.com.
Dudley Taylor Cornish's The Sable Arm: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL4988808W/The_sable_arm?edition=
Albert Castel's "The Fort Pillow Massacre...": https://muse.jhu.edu/article/415468
Librarians have created guides with examples of commonly used citation styles. The citation style you use depends on the academic discipline of your class and the instructor's preference.
Typically, English, history, language arts, cultural studies, and other humanities disciplines use MLA.
Social Sciences, such as psychology, linguistics, sociology, economics, criminology, business, library science and nursing commonly use APA.
Some community college instructors require students to use CMOS, or Chicago Manual of Style, but you may encounter it at universities if you study literature, history, and the arts.
The Council of Science Editors (CSE) scientific style used for citing sources in the sciences, including biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, geology, mathematics and physics
Your professors will include which citation style they expect you to use in the syllabus, or you can ask which citation style they would like you to use.
Examples from the American Psychological Association
Examples from the Modern Language Association
Examples from the Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.)